Setbacks mount at nuclear facility

Wednesday

Mar 30, 2011 at 12:01 AMMar 30, 2011 at 10:50 AM

TOKYO (AP) — Setbacks mounted today in the crisis over Japan’s tsunami-damaged nuclear facility, with nearby seawater testing at its highest radiation levels yet and the president of the plant operator checking into a hospital with hypertension.

Nearly three weeks after a March 11 tsunami engulfed the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, knocking out power to the cooling system that keeps nuclear fuel rods from overheating, Tokyo Electric Power Co. is still struggling to bring the facility in northeastern Japan under control.

Radiation leaking from the plant has seeped into the soil and seawater nearby and made its way into produce, raw milk and even tap water as far as Tokyo, 140 miles to the south.

The stress of reining in Japan’s worst crisis since World War II has taken its toll on TEPCO President Masataka Shimizu, who was sent to a hospital late yesterday.

Shimizu, 66, has not been seen in public since a March 13 news conference in Tokyo, raising speculation that he had suffered a breakdown. For days, officials deflected questions about Shimizu’s whereabouts, saying he was “resting” at company headquarters.

Spokesman Naoki Tsunoda said today Shimizu had been admitted to a Tokyo hospital after suffering dizziness and high blood pressure.

The leadership vacuum follows growing criticism of TEPCO for its failure to halt the radiation leaks. Bowing deeply, arms at his side, Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata announced at a news conference that he would step in and apologized for the delay.

“We must do everything we can to end this situation as soon as possible for the sake of everyone who has been affected,” said Yuhei Sato, governor of Fukushima Prefecture. “I am extremely disappointed and saddened by the suggestion that this might drag out longer.”

TEPCO acknowledged publicly for the first time that at least four of the plant’s six reactors will have to be decommissioned once the crisis subsides, citing the corrosive seawater used to cool reactors and spent fuel pools.

Japan’s government has been saying since March 20 that the entire plant must be scrapped.

Nuclear safety officials said today seawater 300 yards outside the plant contained 3,355 times the legal limit for the amount of radioactive iodine — the highest rate yet and a sign that more contaminated water was making its way into the ocean.

The amount of iodine-131 found south of the plant does not pose an immediate threat to human health but was a “concern,” said Hidehiko Nishiyama, a Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency official.

Radioactive iodine is short-lived, with a half-life of just eight days, and it was expected to dissipate quickly in the ocean.

TEPCO plans to spray resin on the ground around the plant to keep radioactive particles from spreading or seeping into the ocean. The company will test the method tomorrow in one section of the plant before using it elsewhere, Nishiyama said.

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